When monitoring individuals, especially children in a public venue, there is a need to be able to easily recognize and then identify or locate one or more such individuals visually. This is particularly true with children in crowded situations, such as at a public pool or at the beach, where children have minimal clothing for identification. Any visual indicator can serve to prevent a child from departing from an area in which they are being monitored by a “monitoring individual” or “guardian” such as a parent, baby sitter, adult or older relative, or any other caregiver, such as a baby sitter, nanny, au pair, etc., or may assist in locating individuals who have wandered away from a site at which they are being monitored, or where they should stay put. It is particularly important for guardians to be able to locate, monitor and/or identify children from a distance.
In a crowded situation (class trip, beach, swimming pool, attending a theme park, visiting a park, shopping at a mall, camping trip), there is a need to be able to readily distinguish and recognize one family's child from other children who may be in the vicinity. For example, children may be part of a crowd, making it difficult for a monitoring individual to easily locate and identify the monitored individuals. In such a circumstances, it can be difficult for a parent to readily pick out one or more children from the other children within a crowd. For example, a child on a beach, in or near a swimming pool, the ocean or at a playground, could wander away from a parent. As another example, a child may remain within the vicinity of a monitoring person, but still be difficult to identify or locate as a result of a crowd of others surrounding the child or interposed between the child and the monitoring individual. Moreover, there are many situations where a guardian cannot see a child's face, and therefore, cannot readily monitor or identify the child.
This need to be able to readily identify or locate children, may involve only a single child or multiple children, such as children making up a group undertaking a single activity, for example, a several siblings, or a group of children on a class trip. It would be advantageous to have a visual indicator that can be viewed from afar or in a crowd to locate and identify children, particularly when a child's face is not visible.
Therefore, there is a need for a system including a visual indicator for identifying children that is readily observable from a distance.
There is further the need for a system including a visual indicator that is easily sized and adjustable to meet the specific needs of a guardian and child.
There is even further the need for a visual indicator that can be attached and detached easily to and from a guardian and a child.
There is even further the need for a visual indicator that is worn by both a child, and monitoring individual, where the visual indicator device worn by both has matching elements, which is readily observable from a distance.
The present invention satisfies these needs.